422 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



tlio iiiulersrountl wators— tluMr quantity, bead, mineral quality, sanitary con- 

 ditions, and their depths beneath the surface — as well as the best methods of 

 drilling to them and tinishing wells for their utilization and to consider all 

 other questions relating to their recovery for human use." 



The region investigated included approximately the southern two-fifths of 

 the State of Minnesota, covering an area of 28,265 square miles. In nearly 

 all cases a careful examination was made of the sanitaiy quality of the waters. 

 The work was done in cooperation with the University of Minnesota. 



The bacteriolog-y of water: Its present position, P. F. Frankland (Jour. 

 Soc. Chcm. 1)1(1 II.S., 30 (1911), No. 6, pi>- 31D-33J,).—Thii^ article discusses the 

 development of the present methods of bacteriological examination of water 

 and explains their importance in supplementing chemical analysis. 



The author concludes that " in those cases in which the source and general 

 characters of a water supply are well known, the variations in purity from 

 day to day or from week to week can undoubtedly be more satisfactorily 

 watched by means of bacteriological examination. On the other hand, it is 

 often desired by means of a single examination to ascertain the fitness or other- 

 wise of a water for domestic use, and in such cases the omission of a chemical 

 analysis may lead to an entirely erroneous opinion being formed. The ingre- 

 dients detected by chemical analysis — organic matter, ammonia, nitrates, 

 chlorids, etc. — on which an opinion as to hygienic quality is based, are all much 

 more permanent and uniform features in the composition of the water than are 

 the amount and the nature of the bacterial life which it may contain. The 

 chemical analysis will, therefore, if skilfully interpreted, enable a much better 

 idea of the potentiality of the water to be obtained than would be possible from 

 a single bacteriological examination." 



SOILS— FERTILIZERS. 



Agricultural chemistry and veg'etable physiology, A. D. Hall (Ann. Rpts. 

 Prog. Chem. [London], 7 (1910), pp. 208-224). — This is a brief review of prog- 

 ress in investigations during 1910 on soils, soil bacteriology, chemistry of 

 the growing plant, manures and manuring, and the chemistry of animal 

 nutrition. 



It is stated that during this year no outstanding paper comparable to Rus- 

 sell and Hutchinson's work, which appeared in 1909, was published, but that 

 activity was " well maintained in all departments of the subject, and par- 

 ticularly in connection with vegetable physiology several valuable and sugges- 

 tive investigations have been reported. No additions have been made during 

 the year, to our knowledge, of the action of protozoa in the soil, although 

 several independent investigators have arrived at results which fit in with the 

 theory outlined by Russell and Hutchinson, and in a general discussion on the 

 subject which took place at the Sheflield meeting of the British Association 

 some promising applications to practice were reported in connection with the 

 treatment of greenhouse soils which, although rich in manure, rapidly become 

 unsuited for vegetation, and again in connection with the treatment of the soil 

 of sewage farms." 



Special attention is called to Cameron's paper (E. S. R., 23, p. 714) giving a 

 general survey of the Bureau of Soils theory of soil productiveness and fer- 

 tilizer action; the work of A. Koch on the effect of sugar and other carbo- 

 hydrates on nitrogen fixation by Azotobacter; and the work of Ulpiani and 

 others on the changes which take place when cyanamid is added to the soil. 



Colloid studies in scientific soil investigations, E. Ramann (KolloidcJiem. 

 Beihefte, 2 (1911), No. 8-9, pp. 285-303, figs. 5).— This is a review of the 



